Kozhukattai Outer Dough for Preparation of Modhakas.

Every year Vinayaka Chathurthi is celebrated all over the world as the day on which Lord Ganesha, the son of Lord Shiva and Goddess Parvathi bestows his presence on this earth. Vinayaka Chathurthi in my home essentially marks the beginning of good times and of course all other festivals. In Madras, the entire shopping streets are filled with colourful umbrellas and lovely colourful statues of Ganeshas in all sizes and colours. Many people also prefer to buy the plain Ganeshas made of clay and decorate it with flower garlands. Amma and me used to go to PondyBazzar and she would let us choose the idol and the accompanying umbrella to go with it. One time I had a foldable umbrella that I had got during the chathurthi celebrations and refused to part with it for months!!! We would also get as assortment of fruits like wood apple, jamun fruit, apples etc and the signature pooja element which was a lovely green banana leaf, filled with “Arugampullu” and pink flowers. Laden with all this, we would come home excited to set up the mandal for the Lord.

Amma would have already cleaned and decorated the spot with lovely “maakolams“. Maakolam is different from the regular kolams that we use everyday outside out homes. Its simply rice soaked and ground to a fine paste and used to decorate the floors during weddings and festive seasons. The Kolam would be dry and Madurai amma would first place a wooden platform and cover it with silk. She would then gingerly place the Lord on the platform, decorate his neck with little garlands made of flowers and then place a dhoti around him. We would then finally position the colourful umbrella and the stage would be resplendent with his form. The naivedhyam would be Vella Kozhakattais, Uppu Kozhakattais and of course Ammini Kozhakattais. The fruits would be offered to him and Madurai amma would then start the pooja.

In the evenings, we would some times watch the procession of the Ganesha moving towards the beach. Many times, we would visit the nearby temples and get his blessings. Last year I made my own umbrella for the Lord, using sticks and colourful yarn. I also decorated my little silver Ganesha, in my pooja room with a cocktail umbrella!!!

There are essentially two ways of making the dough…One is by soaking the rice and grinding it, which is pretty elaborate but very tasty, and the other is using rice flour. I shall explain both the procedures below.

KOZHAKATTAI DOUGH BY SOAKING RICE:

1 cup of raw rice.

A pinch of salt.

Coconut oil.

Water as required.

PREPARATION:

Soak the raw rice for 2-3 hours and grind in the mixer or grinder to a smooth batter. It does not matter how much water you use as it gets cooked in it finally.

Pour the batter in to a kadai. Make sure that there are no clots and add 1/2 -3/4 spoon of salt and a spoon of coconut oil.

Switch on the stove setting it on medium low and keep stirring to avoid clots.

After a few minutes, you will find that the water content is rapidly used up to cook the rice batter, and it slowly thickens.

After a few more minutes, it will thicken and be cooked. The signs for that is you will find that when you stir, it comes together as a ball.

Also the whiteness of the raw rice will give way to a very slightly off white cooked rice ball.

Immediately transfer to a bowl and add a spoon of coconut oil.

With your hands, knead the ball inside the bowl by smoothing it and bring it together. This step is very integral as this is what binds the dough and takes away the stickiness.

At this point, the dough should be well cooked and seamlessly shape in to a ball.

Set aside in the bowl and cover with a lid.

Kozhakattai Outer Dough.

KOZHAKATTAI DOUGH USING RICE FLOUR:

1 cup Rice Flour.

2 cups of water.

A pinch of salt.

2 Spoons of Coconut Oil.

PREPARATION:

In a kadai, pour the water, add coconut oil and salt and allow to boil.

Immediatly, simmer the stove and add the measured 1 cup of rice flour in to the water.

Use a whisk and remove all the clots quickly.

With a spatula, rapidly stir in the mixture as if will thicken using the water to cook the rice.

As before, keep stirring until you see that the water is all gone and the entire batter scoops up in your ladle as a single mass.

Stir for a few more minutes until you are satisfied and the batter does not stick. This would happen ONLY if the water is not used up so do not fret.

Transfer to a bowl, add another spoon of coconut oil and knead well to form a homogenous ball.

18 thoughts on “Kozhukattai Outer Dough for Preparation of Modhakas.”

Your write up brings forth how much we do miss doing this and that which are an integral part of our culture. We used to get the Ganesha sculptor, if we can call him that come home with clay and mould for us when we were young. Though I do with the pooja idol, I keep the Kozhukkattai and Kolam tradition going until now. Thanks for the post.

I follow the method of doing it with the flour.It comes out well but I fail to shape them into modak/kozhukkattai and end up making an ada-I just place the filling inside and fold it into a semi-circle.Hoping to make modaks at least this year.

Dear Divya,
I guess its also a factor of adding a spoon of coconut oil and making sure that the dough is kneaded well even when its hot. Splitting the dough and working on small balls are better as they keep the rest of the dough moisturised, until you complete the sweet, salt and ammini kozhakattais.

Hi,
Please let me about the complete preparation.
i wanted to know, how can we prepare directly. i.e, mixing the flour with water and insert stuffing and cook in the idle cooker. will this process work? i have also tried the above given style. but, it did not work. please let me know.

Thanks Shoba ! Just finished loading a few in the cooker ! Keeping fingers crossed ! My first time .. the poornam has already given away by solidifying like the toffee of the olden times ! ! ! lets see…

It`s all right if the poornam solidifies. Will make it easier to work with, as long as its not way too hard. Hope it works out for you. PLease make a note of the jaggery and coconut as you can decrease the jaggery the next time. There are many variations in the jaggery everywhere…
Rgds

I tried the outer dough with raw rice flour today. I didnt get it right. Inspite of trying to make it non-sticky it remained sticky. I added the same amout of water as in the recipe, added enough oil….it didnt work? What could have gone wrong?
😦

My grandparents migrated to Delhi during the British era due to my grandfather’s job in the then British Government. Perhaps it was because no idol of Ganesha was available in a mostly Punjabi territory, my grandmother made her own clay idol each year. My mother followed and so I have had the great fortune of seeing my mother make an idol every year. I have continued this tradition in the US and when my children were little, they watched me make the clay idol while they copied using PlayDoh. It was a fun experience for all of us. Nows I do it alone as the children are away in college. I enjoyed reviewing your website and am happy that I “found” it today. Hope to try some of the recipes.